The last thing July remembered was the unbearable pain of her own melting flesh and popping cartilage, before the last vision of an explosive burst engulfed the forest in a hellish fire. The heat tickled her lips and sent her into a sudden blackout.

Free falling into a void of space and time, July started to wonder if she was dead.

July didn’t know where she was; her surroundings had spun into a mosaic blur as she gained footing upon translucent matter and began wandered into the starry night that encapsulated the sky.

This wasn’t the land of the living.

It may have not even been reality.

All she could do was wander aimlessly.

July continued on, stumbling and falling onto the heated ground that eventually turned cold, after what felt like a millennia of walking.

She didn’t know how much time had really passed, nor where exactly she was and where she was walking to-

‘If I’m not dead, then am I in the process of dying?’ She wondered.

The weighted question gave her momentary bliss.

Chuckling at the devastating idea, July walked onward without any further thought.

She had purged most of her aura to ignite the forest fire- it was more energy than she had ever expelled in her life.

- It was careless and reckless

A hasty act that she performed from fear.

Only now, was she considering the implications of her actions and how it ruined the hard work that they all had planned for the last year.

Not only that, but now her lack of judgement and placed them all in danger.

The more that she looked at the roaring fire that proceeded to eat the bits of forest around her, she started to realize that the flames where nothing more than a large target that could lead anything to them; including her.

A pit of guilt began to manifest within July’s psyche and the painter-like mixture of colors that swirled around her in cyclone picked up velocity.

Spinning faster, until seemingly reaching light-speed, the emptiness closed-in on her, swallowing up any morsel of breathable air, and then commenced to devour July.

- - - 

“You’re mine.” A lowly voice reverberated in the endless abyss.

July could not see anything in the darkness.

All she could feel was a hand reaching out and grabbing at her wrist.

Within an instant, July felt the sensation of weight and oxygen return to her physical body. 

Scents of maple sap and mint danced around her nose and she woke in a violent fit.

July’s eyes were assaulted by the glow of flickering flames, but not quite the scene she had previously recalled.

The scenery was foreign to her.

What was once a raging fire, produced by her own concussive explosion of aura, was instead a small, controlled campfire that lightly crackled upon neatly cut logs.

July trembled.

Her body was soaked from stress sweat and her garments were rendered useless from her own fire.

She spastically crawled towards the warmth of the active fire and brushed the ashy marks and smears off of her legs.

The part of woods that July currently found herself in was overgrown and scourged with century-old wormwood saplings. Long, twisted roots and overhanging branches reached out like demonic hands, grasping for her. Even the gleam from the new moon could hardly permeate past the tangled web of dead wood.

The fire was her only sanctuary.

She bunkered down, cradling herself closer to the flame.

July would need to wait until dawn, at the break-of-light, to determine exactly where she was.

As the night spent-on, July couldn’t sleep a wink.

The enclosure of darkness stalked the campfire, almost as if it was waiting to swallow up the small source of light.

Stretching her arm out, July attempted to liven the fire, as she engaged her aura.

Fragments of her reserved power awoke, causing her skin to softly glow. 

Fire spat from her fingers, but July’s magic suddenly ceased in mid-motion as an eerie presence appeared within her space.

A dark outline of a shrouded hand caressed the bottom of July’s chin, gliding a sharp nail along her neck.

From a nearby patch, of dense shadows, emerged October.

July’s stomach dropped and her glowing olive skin instantly became pale.

At such a sight of another’s distress, October couldn’t help but giggle.

October covered her petit lips as she continued into a wicked laughter.

Feral clothing concealed any possible human scent, and kept the animals unwary, so much so that the Summer soul had failed to realize that October had been standing off in the distance for hours.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” October playfully smirked. “It’s been a while.”

July’s usual stoic poise subsided, at the sight of her Autumn sister’s ghoulish presentation. Smears of old blood still stained October’s cheek and trailed down her neck, collecting in small evaporated pools that faded on her bosom.

“I don’t think that we talked since that day on the wagon, all those years ago- Are you still caught-up about that incident?” October toyed. “I thought you wanted those two brats dead anyway.”

July dropped her head, drawing her eyes to the soil beneath her feet, all the while tightly clenching her curly hair.

As she curled up and closed her eyes, July could feel the crushing weight of malicious aura, as October quietly stood, stooping over her.

“Just… leave me alone…” July wept, shrunken-down and curled-up on the ground.

October looked down at the broken girl with disinterest in her dead stare.

Her purple eyes soon became filled with disgust.

“I don’t consume the weak.” October lectured.

July refused to glance up, only keeping her eyes locked on the dwindling fire.

“However… I could make you strong.” October whispered, while caressing July’s soft cheek. “Then you would taste a whole lot better…”

“Wha- what are you talking about?” July whimpered. “Get away from me! - I’ll burn you!”

“Hah, such big talk for such small magic.” October snickered behind her teeth. “You couldn’t even hurt me if you wanted to.”

July began shivering from the cold that the night brought.

Placing her hand in the flames of the campfire, she glanced over her shoulder to finally face October.

July’s gaze was met with the sight of October’s body laying on the ground, a few mere inches from her own freckled nose. The purple of October’s eyes glistened against the dying fire, like night smothering all remaining light of the day. 

July had never been so close to the Autumn Devil, that she finally was able to witness the utter flawlessness of October’s buttermilk skin, purely golden color of dagger-like zig-zagged hair, spider leg eyelashes, blood-red lips, clean tilted brows, and petit nose.

She wondered how someone, who appeared so peculiarly pretty, could end up beholding such a sinister aura.

July only met October in passing, when she was snatched-up by Miss Fortune.

She didn’t remember much of her, as they were often kept apart. 

All that July could recall, was that October was far different before Miss Fortune conducted the birthing spells.

“What do you mean? - about more power?” July mustered to ask, a bored October.

“About what? - oh, now you’re curious.” October yawned. “I wanted to save one of my opposites for last- Ideally, I wanted it to be May, but I guess it could be you… yeah, I suppose I’ll kill you last.”

October then shuffled her body up and started to skip in a dancing rhythm of hops, circling laps around the campfire in its dying minutes.

As the campfire began to stagger to a solemn flame, October suddenly kicked a pile of dirt onto the fire-pit, killing any remaining efforts of the fire.

Stepping over the extinguished fire, October looked to July, like a fox hungry for a rabbit.

At the moment, the moon transcended into a blood-red tone, as the previously starry night sky became overtaken by deeply burgundy clouds and haze.

“Do you want to know the secret to our season power?” She asked July.

“Y- yes.”

“The way to enhance your aura and unlock new levels of power… you do that by consuming the others.”

“Con- consume?” July stuttered. “What do you mean, ‘consuming the others’?”

“It’s exactly what it sounds like, you hot-head.” October explained. “That old bat in the castle told me, that in-order to become the most powerful sorcerer, I’d need to eat the other 11 months- and so I will.”

July’s mouth dropped in horror, as she slowly rose to her feet and began stepping back from October.

October began to slowly step forward, inching towards July.

As she approached July, October snapped her fingers and the fire-pit relit with a grey flame that was vastly larger in scale to the previous natural orange campfire.

“That’s what I did, when I was a little girl.” October trifled on. “Those two, awful children, that were also picked on the same day that you were chosen- they made me stronger.”

July began to quicken her pace; clambering faster away from the golden-haired grim reaper.

“They were just magical vessels- they were chosen to be consumed.” October continued, now matching July’s speed, as she now was giving chase to the frightened freckled girl. 

July began to scramble away faster.

“However, nothing satisfies the hunger like another sorcerer.” October exclaimed, now lightly running after July in the dark bowels of the twisted woodlands. “That’s what I found out when I ate September a few days ago.”

“No!”

“Her blood, her flesh, her bones! - Oh, I’m hungry just thinking about it again- I’m craving it once more!”